The High Price of Equality
Well, here I am in Stockholm! Took a train from the airport to the Central Station before getting on the Metro to Medborgarplatsen to get to my hotel. En route, I snapped a photo in the train station to find Sweden’s answer to the perennial Pulp Fiction question of what do they call a Quarter Pounder in Country X:
No Royale With Cheese for the Swedes, they’ve got the QP Cheese. And it’s expensive! That’s about eight dollars for the burger, a medium fries, and a soda. Presumably Sweden’s high taxes and relatively high-wages for low-end workers accounts for the costly fast food. Of course from a social point of view, expensive fast food probably has public health benefits.
My other first impression is that there seem to be an awful lot of bookstores and 7/11s in this city. Or, I guess I should say, that I’ve seen an aweful lot of bookstores and 7/11s within a very limited range of exposure to the city.
55 Responses to “The High Price of Equality”
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September 29th, 2009 at 9:50 am
7/11s are everywhere in scandinavia. it’s weird.
September 29th, 2009 at 9:51 am
Welcome to Sweden Matt! I hope you enjoy your stay.
September 29th, 2009 at 9:58 am
Well I think if you remove the word ‘fast’ this sentence is true. My understanding from my wife who’s a Scandanavian dual national (Denmark) is that all food is expensive. Generally speaking I don’t think there is much relative distortion. My sense is just that calories are generally expensive, which means an automatic portion control of sorts.
September 29th, 2009 at 9:58 am
it’s expensive! That’s about eight dollars for the burger, a medium fries, and a soda.
That’s about the same price you’ll pay in New York City. Are fast-food combo meals cheaper elsewhere in the US? I haven’t checked recently.
September 29th, 2009 at 9:59 am
A train from the airport? Impossible! I’ve been reliably assured that such transportation options make no sense. It’s taxis all the way down.
September 29th, 2009 at 10:03 am
7/11s are everywhere internationally. Oddly enough, I only recall one in my hometown of Indianapolis.
September 29th, 2009 at 10:04 am
Presumably Sweden’s high taxes and relatively high-wages for low-end workers accounts for the costly fast food.
Well, that, and that McDonald’s major fast food competitor is Bjornson’s House of Fermented Herring.
(I kid–I’m half Swedish myself).
September 29th, 2009 at 10:05 am
Stockholm is a great city. Go to the Jewish Museum if you can.
September 29th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Well done Stefan. First lol of the morning. Have a good trip Matt.
September 29th, 2009 at 10:14 am
Re #4: That’s right…Matt is still living in the past, when that meal cost $2.99. It’s way over $5.00 even in lower-cost US markets now, and I imagine it’s over $6.00 in New York. The differential between US cities and Scandinavia is now surprisingly small. I would have thought that meal would cost well over $10.00 in Sweden nowadays.
September 29th, 2009 at 10:14 am
We have a train to the airport in Philadelphia, linking the airport to center city and points onward in suburbia. Airport workers are an important share of the ridership, along with low ball air travelers like me.
September 29th, 2009 at 10:15 am
You’ll still see lots of 7/11s when you get to Copenhagen.
Enjoy Stockholm, it’s gorgeous. Hope the weather is good this time of year, when I was there in May it was kind of perfect.
September 29th, 2009 at 10:16 am
My understanding from my wife who’s a Scandanavian dual national (Denmark) is that all food is expensive.
Everything is expensive in Denmark. But that said, most things (health care aside) are far too cheap in the United States.
September 29th, 2009 at 10:24 am
The best Swedish burger name is clearly the McFeast. According to wikipedia, it is a Quarter Pounder served with “modified mayonaise with lemonjuice” and tomato in Scandinavian markets only. Filet O’ Lutefisk sold separately.
“7/11s are everywhere internationally. Oddly enough, I only recall one in my hometown of Indianapolis.”
I don’t even recall there being one when I lived there. Village Pantry had the market cornered, at least on the Northside. It really is a bit strange, come to think of it.
September 29th, 2009 at 10:31 am
There’s a handful in Indy, including one on 52nd St. in S. Broad Ripple. However, there’s nowhere near the amount in most similar American cities. I think there is a relationship between gas stations per capita and 7/11s per capita. When there is a gas station on every corner, there’s a lot less of a market for a non-gas-station-attached convenience mart.
September 29th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Interesting. I always thought Jens Lekman’s references to 7-11 were weird, but this explains it.
September 29th, 2009 at 10:37 am
This bit scans as projection…..
I never noticed that McDonald’s sexes up the McFish pictograph with a half a jar of sauce oozing out of it. Mmmmm….tartar sauce….
September 29th, 2009 at 10:42 am
I take it you’ve never bought a extra value meal in Hawaii.
September 29th, 2009 at 10:59 am
O man, I could go for a McFeast right about now.
September 29th, 2009 at 11:07 am
I agree with 4 and 10. It is not that expensive. Even in the US fast food at captive locations like airports is expensive.
September 29th, 2009 at 11:07 am
Matt, you can get English books in the Pocket Shop there in the train station. Yes, food is incredibly expensive (at least if you eat out). There’s a 7-11 in Gamla Stan (Old Stockholm) in a tiny medieval sidestreet. It was one of the strangest things I saw there. I’m sure you’ll see it when you walk around there. A couple of us commenters recommended the Vasa museum, if you missed the recommendation. Enjoy! It’s a beautiful city (as is Chicago).
September 29th, 2009 at 11:18 am
First of all, I ate that very same value meal in Paris a couple of nights ago, and in Göteborg a few days before that (don’t judge, I get cravings). It was equally as expensive in both places — only one of which is a socialist Scandinavian hellhole. Moreover, I believe it’s only about a dollar more than it is back home in California. While it’s true that food can be more expensive “in Scandinavia” than “in the US”, it’s kind of useless to make general comparisons since prices vary from city to city within a given country — or even neighborhood to neighborhood (although try a value meal in Oslo — THAT’S expensive).
Bacon, for example, costs more in LA than in New York, and more in Manhattan than it does in Queens, but it’s dirt cheap in Stockholm. Likewise, all over Sweden one can get dagens lunch for anywhere between 69 and 89SEK, or about $9-$12, which usually includes an appetizer, a main course, a drink, and coffee. Good deal! Try finding that in the US. Packaged candy is expensive, loose candy (lösgodis), which is everywhere, is cheaper.
Bottom line, when you’re on vacation you have to stop converting at some point and just eat what you want.
September 29th, 2009 at 11:27 am
Also, I have a theory about the democratization of urban convenience with the ubiquity of 7-11s and Pressbyråns in Stockholm, where one can buy stamps, a train card, pick up candy, a decent cup of coffee (at 7-11 anyway), a good pastry (cinnamon buns and semlor), re-load the minutes your cell phone on all of the carriers, etc. But I won’t go into it here.
September 29th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Don’t miss the Vasa Museum.
September 29th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Well shoot. I’ve been in Stockholm for the last month, the suburbs anyway, and I haven’t noticed any 7/11’s. On the other hand, I haven’t been looking for one.
September 29th, 2009 at 11:40 am
We saw them all over in Copenhagen last summer. Oddly they are different and far better than the ones we have stateside.
September 29th, 2009 at 11:41 am
The dollar has been swinging between 5.87 and 9.32 since
05/23/2008, so that 59 SEK has been 10 dollars, and 6.30.
Now it is 8.44.
If you want to keep food costs down, eat lunch at 13.00-14.00. “Dagens” should cost you about 80-100SEK. Some suggestions in City:
Asian: Pong, Klara Tvärgränd 3,
Neko, Regeringsgatan 19.
Swedish standard: April, in Gallerian, south end.
Klara Mat, Mäster Samuelsgatan 47.
At night: Pong Deli has sushi and some Asian dishes.
Klara Tvärgränd. But hopefully you spend your evenings in
a more exciting area than city.
September 29th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Is that a UN soldier on the beverage container?
September 29th, 2009 at 11:44 am
Oh, Diet Coke will cost 11-12 SEK a can, 18-20SEK for a halflitre bottle at most of the convenient places. But there is food store in the basement of Åhlens, where you can probably
buy six-packs.
September 29th, 2009 at 11:48 am
When I was in Stockholm 9 years ago, I could not resist the sweet, sweet temptation of the “McDonut.” It was, alas, rather pedestrian. Still have the wrapper, though.
September 29th, 2009 at 11:51 am
If Sweden is like other parts of Europe, there may be cheaper food options, just not chain fast food. This is a little different from the United States where the chain fast food is pretty price competitive with low end local outlets (think cheap tex-mex).
September 29th, 2009 at 11:55 am
McDonalds is pretty much the cheapest way of curing hunger.
There used to a price war between Jerusalem kebab and Falafelkungen on götgatan, but I think one of them folded.
September 29th, 2009 at 11:57 am
In the suburbs you sometimes see Pizza 29 kr signs. That is
for one with tomato sauce and cheese. With some mushrooms, it
is 39, with ham it’s 49, etc.
September 29th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
If you come to copenhagen, give a shout and I can arrange a tour the bars of the city
September 29th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
$8 isn’t that bad. I work across from a McDonalds in midtown and that same combo is $7.50 here, so I don’t necessarily think it is the taxes.
September 29th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
The best bet for cheap eats in Stockholm is on the street. The city is filled with Korvgrillen stands, basically little shacks that are just a kitchen with a roof which serve lots of hot dogs/sausages, but also kebabs and burgers. Go for a “French Hotdog”, delicious and easy to walk with while you eat.
September 29th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
The weird thing about Carl’s Jr’s Six Dollar Burger — and I could tell this from the time it was introduced — is that it really does cost about $6.00 now, especially if it’s one of the specialty burgers, like Jalapeno or Teriyaki or whatever. As a combo, the price on those will run somewhere in the $7.50 vicinity. The original idea in the commercials was that you were only paying about 3 or 4 bucks for what was a “restaurant-style” six-dollar burger, never mind that it was always almost six bucks once you included fries and a drink.
Eventually even the most basic Six Dollar Burger, without the combo, is going to be more than six bucks, at which point they’ll probably just borrow the “Thickburger” name from Hardee’s.
September 29th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Yeah, that same meal here in Bergen, Norway costs about 12 bucks. This summer when I was in Des Moines, Iowa, a Quarter Pounder meal cost somewhere under six bucks. It’s called a Quarter Pounder here, btw. And a McFeast is actually pretty good.
September 29th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
“We saw them all over in Copenhagen last summer. Oddly they are different and far better than the ones we have stateside.”
7-11s are for chumps, regardless of where you live. The Mt. Everest of convenience stores is Sheetz. About this, there can be no argument. If Copenhagen were to convert entirely to Sheetz, it would quickly become to world center of everything.
On the flipside of this, CoGos and Royal Farms are the worst convenience stores. I presume the Taliban has an exclusive contract with one or the other, which might account for the region’s surliness.
September 29th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
You do know that Sheetz is only in six states, right?
That being said, on Christmas Day 1997, two friends and I were driving from West Virginia to New Jersey along I-68 and were trying unsuccessfully for many miles to find an open gas station until we came across a Sheetz in Cumberland, MD. This inspired a very brief song we wrote called “Savior to the Weary Traveler, Sheetz.”
September 29th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
“Or, I guess I should say, that I’ve seen an aweful lot of bookstores and 7/11s within a very limited range of exposure to the city.”
What’s wrong with that sentence?
September 29th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
“You do know that Sheetz is only in six states, right?”
Well, the Eiffel Tower is only in ONE CITY. Yet we recognize its greatness.
World domination takes time.
September 29th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Are those carrots? At McDonald’s? I suppose they come with an order of flat-packed furniture too?
September 29th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
An odd sight in Sweden is a store called “Grays” with locations in Stockholm amd Malmo (IIRC) that sells US products. By US products, I mean name-branded, fluorescent packaged Nabisco, General Mills and Kellogs’ products. It looks like a neon fun-derland. The one in Stockholm is located in Gamla Stan.
Food in Sweden is expensive, 7-11’s are ubiquitous (convenient for pay-go phone cards) and the candy is weird/disgusting. You’re better off opting for cafe food with fresh bakery bread and such than a fast-food meal, because the price points are similar. Another thing is that real beer (sold only at the Systembolaget) isn’t much cheaper than getting it from a bar. So drink out, if you have the time.
September 29th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Back in the day, my and another family paused from servicing the shah’s MIC long enough for a trip to Scandinavia, first stop, Stockholm.
Our rooms secured, our very next act was to stop a traffic cop to ask where the nearest McD was. He was literally aghast that this knot of Americans couldn’t seem to unplug from their native culture for two minutes and try going local for a bit. Finally, the adults got it through to him that we had already BEEN unplugged, and to have mercy for our weakness.
September 29th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
I was shocked by the amount of 7-11’s in Swedish cities and somewhat disappointing. They don’t have all of the awful things they have at the American ones. Also, the beer in Sweden is only 3.5 percent, someone kind of explained it as socialized alcohol, maybe someone else on here can explain why though.
September 29th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
That is why one should go to the dirtier and seedier side of scandinavia: Denmark. In this cesspool of drinking and sin the beer is 4,6 % like beer is suppossed to be.
September 29th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
At the convenience stores, certainly. The reason for this has to do with prohibition, essentially. It dates back to the late-19th century when the monarchs decided they didn’t want Sweden to continue being the drunkest country in Europe.
You can get the real beer at the Systembolaget or any bar.
September 29th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
That same burger combo would cost 5.99 or around 6.50 with tax at McDonalds here in California. So Sweden has just a 20% premium over Proposition 13 land.
Scandinavian socialism is looking pretty cheap these days.
September 30th, 2009 at 1:40 am
The Shah did not bring McDonalds to Iran? Really? I thought he was your bastard, pro-western, pro-modernity, but not very pro-democracy.
Alcohol is actually quite a lot cheaper at Systembolaget, say 15-20 SEK for a bottle of good beer. At a bar, that will cost you around 50 SEK. But I can’t imagine that Matt would want to drink alone in his hotel room anyway.
The carrots at McDonalds. Yes, they are trying improve their image. They also have a Ceasar sallad that is not bad.
Grays seem not to be doing too well. They closed the store in Uppsala years ago. I think they got most of their money from Jolt cola sales, but then Jolt got a Swedish bottler, and you could get it anywhere.
Unfortunately the Jolt bottler had to obey the law and lower the caffeine to the same level as Coca-Cola. Yes, Swedish law limited the amount caffeine in soft drinks, at the level of Coca-Cola. Funny thing, that.
I suppose the suckers somehow realized that they got the form (the bad taste) but not the substance.
I forgot about the hotdog stands. Probably because I would not eat at them. They don’t seem to be doing very good business. Low-margin with low turnover is not recipe for quality food.
September 30th, 2009 at 2:13 am
Matt is missing a perfectly good opportunity to link to the Stranglers’ “Sweden”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btJvIQcPlyg
Much though I’m loath to admit it, I sometimes suspect that the Stranglers’ politics may have leaned somewhat right-wing.
September 30th, 2009 at 3:31 am
Matt really seems to have problems with getting a grip on exchange rates, first in Germany with soda prices and now here in Sweden. The dollar has been yo-yo-ing the last couple of years and is now very weak. That’s pretty much the only relevant explanation.
It might come as a surprise, but other countries aren’t go to adapt their prices when the dollar drops in value, just as McDonald’s in the US doesn’t change their prices when the Latvian Lats drops in value compared to the USD.
September 30th, 2009 at 8:21 am
Sheetz?
Don’t care for their coffee.
Right now, the best is 7-11’s Bold Brazilian Roast.
And I’ll take 7-11 and WaWa over Sheetz.
September 30th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Enjoy some Swedish Cloudberries on your ice cream…delicious! Not to be confused with Norge Cloudberries, of course.
October 4th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
I can get a possumburger at Mama Dump’s cafe for $1.98 including tax. Let’s see the Scandinavians beat that!